Medicin och kultur

Abstract

What can the discipline of ethnology contribute to the fields of medicine, care and health? The present article is an attempt to describe several themes in which an ethnological approach might prove particularly rewarding.

One such theme is the meeting between the patient and medical competence. Another is the relationship between science and medical practice, i.e. treatment, nursing and institutional care. Between these twin concepts exist interesting gaps, in which the ethnologist can move and which furthermore lead to themes like power and science, society and science and society and the individual. Seen from without, it seem obvious that medicine is not just a biological/therapeutic activity but also a constructor and bearer of social and cultural norms.

This interweaving of biology and culture also recurs in modern man's view of him/herself and the ability of his/her body to communicate the true self. The body is a sculpture to be moulded and exhibited, but also an organism requiring maintenance.

A number of ongoing ethnological research projects are treating both these and similar themes. Common for several of these projects is the problematization of modern society and the relationship between power and knowledge. Patienthood and the individual's apprehension of body and soul are other central problems, which together display the opportunities for, and the fruitfulness of, locating medicine and biology in temporal, spatial, social and cultural contexts.